Vote for the greatest metal guitarist ever!

Tony Iommi invented the genre, Dave Murray made it gallop and James Hetfield pummelled the crap out of it, but who's the greatest metal guitarist ever? TG wants you to decide!

Tony Iommi invented the genre, Dave Murray made it gallop and James Hetfield pummelled the crap out of it, but who's the greatest metal guitarist ever?

TG wants you to decide, so in conjunction with our friends at MusicRadar, we'll be running a poll over the next fortnight (8 to 21 February). The results will be published in the new-look Total Guitar, launching on 18 March (more information).

How to vote

We've created a 20-strong shortlist, which we think represents the best names in metal guitar.

To submit your vote, just head to the MusicRadar.com home page and scroll down until you see the poll (in the right-hand middle column) and click on the name you want to win. It's as simple as that!

What, no Page?!

Although they've certainly had an influence on many metal guitarists, we've taken the liberty of ruling out a few 'giants' that we think are more appropriately classified as 'hard rock' players, eg, Slash and Jimmy Page. Please direct any complaints about the shortlist to our customer relations manager.